Hand Foot and Mouth

I took Maria to the doctor on Friday and it turns out she had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, which is also known as the Coxsackie virus.  I called the doctor's office at like 8:01 Friday morning and I swear to the LORD, she was better at like 8:02 and I thought, great, now I have to drive across town and pay a copay for them to say she's fine.  But off we went and her temperature was 98.5, but when the doctor checked her out, he found blisters in her throat.  This explains why she didn't eat or drink much but man - she is a tough cookie.  It seems like everyone I know that's had this has been really sick!  Her doctor told me that she had had it for so long that she'd probably be fine and she was, so that's good.  We had Veronica's birthday party yesterday and Maria was perfectly healthy for it.

I suppose we're lucky that she was healthy for Veronica's party because BOY OH BOY was she difficult.  For the most part, she's fine, but if Veronica weren't as giving as she is, it would have been much more painful.  My mother had bought a lot of stuff for the party, including party hats and Veronica had the purple one.

Look at her face!  Maria wanted the purple one, so Veronica GAVE it to her and took the pink one, but Maria wanted the purple one AND the pink one too!  And it was VERONICA'S birthday party!  There were one hundred incidents like this, she lost at Cinderella Bingo and was FURIOUS that someone else won.  On and on she was like this but in between she was adorable and sweet.  It's hard, I bet, being four and having it be four months past your birthday, which happens to be in the winter, and seeing your little sister have a party.  I mean, I understand it but it's tiring.

Tonight she got sick  but I think it was just from eating too much junk and too little rest.  She fell asleep, woke up, and got sick and said "Now I can't go to school?".  She is a girl obsessed!  Stay tuned, but I bet she's fine tomorrow.  I hope so, she only has this week and next week and then she's finished for the summer.  Then in the fall she'll start PRE-K, which is how I'm thinking of it.  It cheers me to think of it that way, right?  It's not Yet Another Year of Preschool, it's PRE-K!

Sick

So, she is really sick!  She has had a fever of 101 for one and a half days.  What the hecka?  I don't know what's wrong with her.  She is so plucky that you seriously can't even diagnose her, I swear.  We went to my parents' house today and she was so excited to go, we stopped and got a donut on the way and she tore into it but then she took like two bites and gave it to me, sighing.  Then she wanted to eat pizza for lunch, but started and then had to go lie down.  She is so my daughter, though, I can totally remember being like that.  I don't know if my Dad would remember but one time when I was in grade school, I had been sick with the flu or whatever and I thought I was feeling better to go to school.  But when I got to school, I knew it was a mistake, but I tried to press on and of course I threw up and they had to call my Dad to come and get me, and of course he had just gotten to work or whatever and he was mad!  Maria is just like that.  It's like, she's listless but she is beyond plucky, she is working so hard to feel good, she doesn't understand she is making herself worse.  "I caaaaaan't relaaaaax!", she was crying today at my mom's house.  She told me this afternoon she didn't know how to shut her eyes.  Sheesh.  But she did take a bath and I think that helped.  She wore her pajamas when we went to get Anthony and she fell asleep but she also went right to sleep tonight, the poor baby.  I am praying she is better tomorrow.

May

It's hard to believe it's May, already.  Maria is excited because Veronica is having a birthday.  She really seems happy for Veronica, right now, but Lord knows how she'll be on the actual day.  She has this week and two more weeks and she is done with the school year at her preschool.  I have no plans for her to go to camp or anything this year - she and Veronica can take swimming, I figure, and we'll take ballet and that will be all.  Maria is excited because her friend Carlotta is going to be off from school soon and they can see more of each other than they do now.

She's had a great year in school, she's made some friends, she's learned a lot.  She can write her name pretty well and she counts to infinity, or something.  She has an incredible memory.  We went to the library last week and we sang, to the tune of patty cake, Patty cake, patty cake, pizza man, make me a pizza, as fast as you can, roll it, and toss it, and sprinkle it with cheese and don't forget the ______ please! They sang it a few times and two days later she was doing it with Felicity and she did it perfectly.  She's been going to gymnastics and ballet and although she is crazy so often, just as often she is fun and sweet.  It's hard to remember the fun and the sweetness when she is crying and screaming but I am trying.